Ideas and Details

by Bauman, M. Garrett

• ISBN13: 9780155074774
• ISBN10: 0155074776
• Edition: 4th
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2000-06-05
• Publisher: Wadsworth Publishing

Summary

Taking a no-frills approach to composition, IDEAS & DETAILS offers a strong focus on student writing with detailed writing strategies that empower student-writers with options instead of prescriptions. In this brief writing guide, students will discover over 40 sample student writings, a balance of short and long assignments, over 100 brain teasers that provide students with invention strategies to stimulate creativity, and integrated coverage of visual rhetoric with 50 new photographs and works of art.

Table of Contents

Preface	ix
The Honest Writer	1	(13)
A Professional Attitude	4	(1)
The Struggle against Silence	5	(2)
Honesty	7	(4)
Student Essay: ``Chicken at Wegman's,''	11	(3)
Jennifer M. Horton
The Two-Part Secret of Good Writing: Ideas and Details	14	(17)
Ideas	15	(1)
Details	16	(2)
What Makes a Good Idea	18	(3)
What Makes a Good Detail	21	(1)
The Difference between a Topic and an Idea	22	(1)
Should You Start with Ideas or Details?	23	(6)
Student Essay: ``Nosy People,''	29	(2)
Melissa Waheibi
Getting Ideas: Brain Teasers to Help You Write on Almost Anything	31	(32)
Improving Your Ideas	34	(2)
Ten Brain Teasers	36	(16)
Use Your Senses	36	(1)
See the Topic from Alternative Viewpoints	37	(2)
Break Stereotypes, Break Unquestioned Ideas, and Break Slogans	39	(3)
Classify Your Topic	42	(2)
Compare and Contrast Your Topic	44	(1)
Create Metaphors	45	(2)
List Examples	47	(1)
Make a Bug List	48	(1)
Use Humor and Fantasy	49	(1)
Anticipate Your Audience	50	(2)
Other Brain Teasers in This Book	52	(2)
Two Sample Brain Teasers and Commentary	53	(1)
Roadblocks to Good Ideas and Details	54	(5)
Fear of Risk	54	(1)
Insecurity about Your Ability to Think	55	(4)
Student Essay and Analysis: ``Spring Break: Mazatlan, Mexico''	59	(4)
Tinamarie Ciccarone
Paragraphs: Ideas and Details in Miniature	63	(8)
Three Ways to Build Paragraphs	64	(4)
Transitions	68	(2)
Paragraph Peer Review Checklist	70	(1)
Order from Chaos: Thesis and Outline	71	(16)
A Working Thesis	72	(4)
Sample: A Working Thesis	73	(3)
Looping	76	(1)
Outlines	77	(1)
The Scratch Outline	78	(5)
Use Brain Teasers with Built-in Outlines	78	(1)
Make a Bullet Summary from Your Brain Teasers or Freewriting	79	(3)
Use Clustering, a Visual Diagram	82	(1)
Sample Draft from Outline: ``The Fine Art of Dying''	83	(3)
Peer Review Checklist for Thesis/Outlines	86	(1)
The Draft: That Frenzy Near Madness	87	(14)
The Concrete Introduction	88	(3)
Warm-ups Are for Leftovers	88	(3)
What to Focus on During Composition	91	(3)
What Not to Focus on in the Draft	92	(1)
Drafting on a Computer	93	(1)
When You Get Stuck	93	(1)
Blocks During Drafting	94	(2)
Fear of Messiness	94	(1)
Poor Work Environment	95	(1)
Conclusions	96	(1)
Student Essay and Analysis: ``Tougher Punishment for Sex Offenders''	96	(4)
Pamela Fleming
Peer Review Checklist for Introductions	100	(1)
Revising Drafts: Writing Is Revising	101	(17)
Revision Myths and Realities	102	(1)
On Your Own	103	(1)
Revise Ideas	104	(1)
Honesty, Freshness, Coherence	104	(1)
Revise Details	105	(1)
Visualize and Support	105	(1)
Revise Organization	105	(1)
Make It Easy on the Reader	105	(1)
Revise Word Use	106	(1)
Waxed Words Sparkle	106	(1)
Revise Mechanics	106	(1)
Help from Others: Peer Editing and Teacher Conferences	107	(1)
How to Give Peer Criticism	107	(1)
How to Receive Peer Criticism	108	(1)
Sample Revision	108	(3)
Teacher Comments	110	(1)
The Final Draft	111	(3)
Revising on a Word Processor	112	(2)
Student Essay and Analysis: ``Bastard,''	114	(2)
Miguel Martinez
Peer Review Checklist for Revision	116	(1)
Peer Review Checklist Questions for Revision	117	(1)
Writing with Style	118	(18)
Honesty	119	(4)
Vocabulary	119	(1)
Accuracy	119	(1)
Euphemisms and Crude Language	120	(1)
Cliches	121	(1)
Sexist Language	122	(1)
Vividness	123	(4)
Concreteness	123	(1)
Verbs	124	(1)
Adjectives and Adverbs	125	(1)
Metaphors	126	(1)
Stylish Sentence Structure	127	(1)
Variety	127	(1)
Parallel Structure	128	(1)
Conciseness	128	(2)
Using a Computer to Revise Words	130	(3)
Student Essay and Analysis: ``Good Intentions,''	133	(2)
Mary Updaw
Peer Review Checklist for Style	135	(1)
Description: Making Your Audience See	136	(14)
A Writer's Eye: Six Ways to Visualize Ideas	138	(5)
Experience the Subject: Don't Think in Words	138	(2)
Use Brain Teasers to Train Your Eye	140	(1)
Use the Iceberg Principle	141	(1)
Try Other Eye-Training Tricks	142	(1)
Revising for Vivid Description	143	(3)
The Sense Test	143	(1)
The Specificity Test	144	(1)
The Freshness Test	145	(1)
Student Essay and Analysis: ``The Mower,''	146	(3)
J. Andrew Lee
Peer Review Checklist for Description	149	(1)
Narration: Telling Your Audience a Story	150	(19)
Conflict	151	(2)
Complication	153	(2)
How to Ruin a Story	155	(1)
Describing People	156	(2)
Student Essay: ``The Red Heart,''	158	(1)
Lisa Neal
Dialogue	159	(2)
How to Say Something Worth Saying	161	(3)
Student Essay and Analysis: ``Live Abortion,''	164	(3)
Beatriz Valle
Peer Review Checklist for Narration	167	(1)
Self-Evaluation Checklist for Narration	168	(1)
Informative Writing: Telling Your Audience What It Doesn't Know	169	(19)
Audience and Tone	170	(2)
Packing in Details	172	(1)
Surprise Value	172	(2)
Poor Informative Topics	174	(1)
Choosing Good Topics	175	(1)
Organizing Informative Writing	175	(8)
The Process or ``How-to''	175	(1)
The Essentials or ``What-is''	176	(1)
Causes or ``Why''	177	(1)
Effects	178	(1)
Comparison or Contrast	179	(1)
Classification	180	(3)
Student Essay and Analysis: ``When the Bough Breaks: Black Children in Crisis,''	183	(4)
Tokeya Young
Peer Review Checklist for Information	187	(1)
Persuasive Writing: Seeking Agreement from an Audience	188	(28)
Audience and Tone	189	(2)
Persuasive Topics	191	(1)
Raising Problems	192	(1)
Supporting Evidence	193	(1)
Facts	193	(3)
Appeals to the Reader's Values	196	(2)
Logic	198	(6)
Structuring the Persuasive Essay	204	(5)
Student Letter and Analysis: ``Letter to Ms. Iannuzi''	209	(4)
Amy Meritt
Student Essay and Analysis: ``Homosexuals Adopting Children,''	213	(2)
Kerry Burton
Peer Review Checklist for Persuasion	215	(1)
The Literary Essay and Review	216	(27)
Brain Teasers	218	(3)
Brain Teasers for Explication	221	(3)
Organizing Literary Essays	224	(1)
The Draft	224	(2)
Revising Literary Essays	226	(1)
The Review	226	(3)
Poems for Explication and Discussion	229	(4)
Student Essay and Analysis: ``Structure and Feeling in `Childhood Is the Kingdom Where Nobody Dies'''	233	(5)
Carrie Gaynor
Student Essay: ``Three-Personed God,''	238	(3)
Nancy L. Galleher
Peer Review Checklist for Literary Essays	241	(1)
Peer Review Checklist for Review	242	(1)
Research: Written with Christopher Otero-Piersante	243	(42)
Research Skills: Professional, Academic, and Personal Uses	244	(1)
Research and the Writing Process	245	(1)
Finding Research Paper Topics	246	(1)
Establishing Key Research Questions	246	(1)
Library Resources: Librarians, Books, Journals, and Computers	247	(4)
The Reference Section	247	(1)
Finding Books	248	(2)
Finding Magazine and Newspaper Sources	250	(1)
Periodical Indexes	250	(1)
Computer Indexes to Magazines and Newspapers	251	(3)
Hints for Using Computer Indexes	252	(2)
Getting Connected: Research on the Web	254	(5)
Finding Reliable Web Sites	255	(1)
Searching the Web	256	(2)
Electronic Mail and Newsgroups	258	(1)
Other Resources	259	(1)
Notetaking	260	(2)
Organizing Research Papers	262	(1)
Writing the Research Paper: Handling Sources	263	(4)
Use Tag Lines	263	(1)
Should You Paraphrase or Use Direct Quotation?	263	(1)
Comment on Your Sources	264	(1)
Handling Statistics	264	(3)
Citations	267	(1)
Avoiding Plagiarism	267	(2)
Works Cited	269	(6)
MLA Format	269	(3)
Electronic Sources	272	(2)
APA Format	274	(1)
Revising Research Writing	275	(3)
Peer Review Checklist for Research	278	(1)
Student Essay and Analysis: ``Pigs as Pets,''	279	(6)
Annette McFarland
A Collection of Student Essays	285	(45)
Journals	286	(4)
Richard L. Shields	286	(2)
Tina Thompson	288	(2)
Narrative/Descriptive Essays	290	(7)
``Pa's Secret,''	290	(4)
Carol Nobles
Revised Narrative Essay (Original in Chapter 7)	294	(1)
``Bastard,''	294	(3)
Miguel Martinez
Informative Essays	297	(6)
Informative Contrast Essay	297	(1)
``Food for Thought,''	297	(2)
Yeou-jih Yang
Informative Process Essay	299	(1)
``The Autopsy,''	299	(4)
Gregory F. Matula
Career Research Papers: Using the Interview and MLA-Style Documentation	303	(5)
``Radiation Therapy as a Career,''	303	(3)
Lorrie Hartz
``Career in Imagination,''	306	(2)
Rob Banwar
Informative Cause Essay: APA-Style Research Format	308	(3)
``The Teenage Pregnancy Epidemic,''	308	(3)
Hollie Salphine
The Professional Letter	311	(9)
Persuasion Using Description	312	(1)
``Letter to Brad A. Walker,''	312	(3)
Craig Lammes
Persuasive Letters	315	(1)
``Letter to Senator Perry,''	315	(3)
Timothy C. Dewart
``Letter to Shirl Bonaldi,''	318	(2)
Tina Maenza
Persuasive Essay	320	(3)
``A Voice against Needle Exchange,''	320	(3)
Raymond Santiago
Review	323	(2)
``Dance Rhythmics,''	323	(2)
Tina C. Maenza
Literary Research Paper Using Comparison	325	(5)
``Responsibility and the Odyssey,''	325	(5)
John Barzelay
Handbook of English	330	(28)
Correct Writing and the English Language	331	(2)
Punctuation	333	(10)
Comma	333	(6)
Semicolon	339	(1)
Colon	340	(1)
Other Punctuation	340	(3)
Capitalization	343	(3)
Sentence Structure	346	(4)
Sentence Fragment	346	(1)
Run-On Sentence (Comma Splice)	347	(1)
Misplaced Modifiers	348	(2)
Agreement	350	(1)
Tense	350	(1)
Subject--Verb Agreement	350	(1)
Noun--Pronoun Agreement	351	(1)
Spelling	351	(1)
Numbers	352	(1)
Dictionary of Usage	352	(6)
The 25 Most Commonly Misused Words in English	352	(6)
Index	358